Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Ligularia Hybrida cultivar Little Rocket.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ligularia plant, botanically known as Ligularia Hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Little Rocketxe2x80x99.
The new Ligularia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Ter Aar, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Ligularia cultivars that are more compact.
The new Ligularia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Ter Aar, The Netherlands of a proprietary seedling selection originating from a cross-pollination of the Ligularia cultivar Latxc3xarnchen and the Ligularia cultivar The Rocket, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Ligularia cultivar The Rocket, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Ligularia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross grown in a controlled environment in Ter Aar, The Netherlands, in 1999.
Asexual reproduction of the new Ligularia by divisions was first conducted in Ter Aar, The Netherlands in 2000. Since then, asexual reproduction by divisions has shown that the unique features of this new Ligularia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar Little Rocket has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Little Rocketxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Little Rocketxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Ligularia:
1. Upright, somewhat outwardly spreading and relatively compact plant habit.
2. Freely basal branching growth habit.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Yellow-colored ray and disc florets.
Plants of the new Ligularia differ primarily from plants of the parents in plant height and floriferousness as plants of the parents are not as compact and not as freely flowering as plants of the new Ligularia.
Plants of the new Ligularia can also be compared to plants of the Ligularia cultivar Papillon, not patented. However, plants of the new Ligularia are more compact and have more inflorescences per basal stem than plants of the cultivar Papillon.